General Course Information

The Integrated Building Systems course is the "capstone" course of the building technology offerings. It is the course in which students should "put it all together" from a technical and design standpoint. It is also a course which should enable venues of exploration which illuminate ways in which a strong knowledge of technical systems can be used to support a design intention instead of hindering it. The course recognizes the potential of computational tools as well as the critical necessity of the architect's knowledge about the built environment. These two must be seen as mutually supportive, not exclusive.

Four building systems will be addressed in this course: climatic (place response), enclosure, structural, and illumination. Teams of students will actively engage in the design of the building systems for a small building design which will be preselected. The teams will design appropriate systems for their building located in one of ten distinct climatic zones allowing the course participants to compare the implications of place and climate on the response for their respective designs throughout the term.

Student groups will utilize a wide variety of building analysis tools as a means of testing assumptions for the proposals. The tools are broken into two main categories: computational tools and experiential /monitoring tools. The utilization of both gives students the opportunity to test various scenarios while understanding the implications related to quantities as well as quality.

Professionals/practitioners will be integrated into the course throughout the term. Each will be an expert in a specific aspect of the systems which are being considered. They will initially give a lecture in which they describe a project on which they are presently working, or have recently completed. They will then focus on their "specialty" and the related integration issue(s).

The course format encourages the student teams to search for solutions to "real-life" situations and enable their communication in a way that will only become more common. All materials and texts from the prerequisites will be utilized. Since this material will not be re-presented, it is assumed that each student brings this knowledge to the course. The student teams will resolve the design of the systems through iteration. Initially determining the appropriate systemic response which supports the architectural intent and then on to the detailed resolution of the system. The final result should be a building in which the building systems form a coherent whole.

Evaluation for the course grade will be based upon participation, quality of presentations, demonstrated depth of engagement with the development of each of the building systems, and the final report. Students will be expected to create web-based presentations during the course for easier access by course members and the guests. All participants will be expected to critique and contribute the all of the designs. The final report will be a "package" which will represent all of the work from the term.

Course Content

This term will focus mainly on four building systems: climate control, envelope, structure, and lighting. These are the four major systems which architects can, and should, manipulate in order to create the best possible design for their clients. Materials are being provided that are separated into two categories: required reading and review. The required reading covers material that should be familiar or is new. The review materials are mostly compilations of case studies, details or longer chapters which contain material that might not be of general interest.

Recommended Texts

Allen, Edward. Fundamentals of Building Construction - Materials and Methods. John Wiley & Sons.

Allen, Edward and Iano, John. The Architect's Studio Companion - Technical Guidelines for Preliminary Design. John Wiley & Sons.

Moore, Fuller. Environmental Control Systems. McGraw Hill. 1993

Rush, Richard D. The Building Systems Integration Handbook. Butterworth-Heineman. Paperback Reprint. 1991.